Chương 56: Technique Practice

Rowan The next day, Mikael's four students sat in the small courtyard of the Jewelbox Pavillion, all in various states of misery and fatigue. Decatour still held onto the cube, desperately willing it to do more than light up for half a second, and grinding his teeth when it didn't. Silvester had abandoned his cube to the side, drawing something in a patch of dirt with a stick. Lee stared at Rowan.

"Rowan… what's that thing on your head?" Rowan was wearing a cone of alum, the sort of thin metal steel that the street vendors used to put messier foods in.

"To block my Divine Sense. Metal is naturally resistant to Wood qi, and my Divine Sense has a Wood qi context."

"Is it working?" asked Silvester.

"No, but Senior Brother Mikael claims it'll help." The Wandering Bulb swiped it off of Rowan's head and put it on.

"Fang!" Rowan protested, giving the cone a halfhearted grab. The bulb's roots had already crushed the top of the cone into a little ball. Lee shrugged.

"Let her have it. Girls like accessories." Princess Feathertail, who had been snoozing in the shade, opened a single, beady eye. She glowered jealously at Fang.

"I am in need of a new hat, Chief Assistant!" Lee sighed. It had been two weeks since Princess Feathertail had been summoned. In that time, the Eastern Winged Basilisk had doubled in height, and the scales of her serpentine tail had darkened in color. Rowan wasn't an expert at estimating the strength of spirit beasts, but it seemed all of her sparring with the Wandering Bulb had increased her cultivation.

She was probably as strong as a cultivator at the peak of the second layer of Qi Condensation - stronger than Lee, who had just received a pill from his father to break though to the second layer himself. All the sparring between Princess Feathertail and Fang had impacted the Wandering Bulb as well. Fang stood taller, almost to Rowan's knee. When she was agitated or excited, the first layer of her bulb would peel back and begin to viciously rotate.

He guessed she was also in the second layer of Qi Condensation, although behind Princess Feathertail. Certainly, if Rowan had run into this version of Fang in the Wilds that fateful day, he would've run screaming.

"What have you been feeding Fang?" mumbled Rowan.

"She's not a spirit beast, just a spirit herb - her cultivation is improving way too fast." Lee plucked a strand of grass from the ground, rubbing it between his fingers.

"Oh, whenever I cook something for Princess, I make two portions. Fang deserves it. If not for her help, Princess's fighting abilities wouldn't have improved so quickly." A shiver went down Rowan's spine. He didn't even want to know the amount of spirit stones Lee was spending on meals for those two.

"How's your progress with the artifact?" Rowan asked Lee.

"I couldn't even finish the first Qi Sense pattern," moaned Lee.

"It is easy, Chief Assistant! You must simply sense the qi!" Lee glared at Princess Feathertail.

"If it's so easy, why don't you give it a try?"

"My wings can't hold onto something of that shape." The Wandering Bulb tittered, her roots moving back and forth in laughter.

"Can you two quit fooling around?" snapped Decatour, his eyes snapping open as his concentration broke. The cube's light flickered.

"The conference starts soon, and Senior Brother Mikael obviously has high expectations for us. If we are to compete with those twice our age—""If a cultivator is in their late twenties and still in early-stage Qi Condensation, I should hope you would be able to beat them, Decatour," said Rowan.

"Don't be simple, Helsing." Decatour sneered.

"I see the fluke of your rise to the third layer has completely rotted your brain."

"I think it's okay for us to be realistic about our chances," said Lee.

"That's the only way to really improve after all, it's--" Damion didn't like that Lee was agreeing with him so he simply went back to cultivating with the cube. The four of them startled when a tree branch above them snapped. They looked up to see Mikael sitting above them in the branches. Rowan in particular felt deeply unsettled.

His senses were more sensitive than ever, able to hear even bugs crawling on the ground, so to know that a person had been so close without realizing it made some instinct inside of him stand up and pace around like an agitated cat. Mikael jumped down from his perch.

"Alright, it's time to test the four of you. Halsey, you're up first. Elder Schell tells me your main attack is a qi disruption technique. How are you practicing?" Rowan rubbed the back of his neck.

"On… demonic cultivators." An expression of infinite tiredness washed over Mikael's face. He rubbed his temples in slow circles.

"Well, better than mortals, I suppose." Mikael dropped his arms to his side and stood up straight.

"You need a consistent opponent to practice on - to learn how to calibrate your technique, and map its effects through your target's system. You'll never progress otherwise. From now on, that opponent will be me." A wave of delight crashed over Rowan.

"Senior brother, are you sure? Qi disruption is unpleasant." If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation." Mikael," he corrected.

"And I'm at the peak of Qi Condensation. You won't hurt me." The white-haired man placed his right two fingers on the pulse point of his own left wrist. Moment after moment passed, and Rowan felt an imperceptible shift in the qi in the air. Cultivators all had a certain presence. The higher their level, the stronger it was - their imprint on this world. If they were agitated, this aura flared out into a spiritual pressure, and sometimes manifested effects related to their path in their surroundings.

Mikael's presence, which was calm and quiet and unintrusive, was already hard to sense. Yet, Rowan felt its absence as it began to steadily weaken. Finally, Mikael removed his fingers.

"I've reduced my resistances to that of a Qi Condensation cultivator in the third layer." He spread his arms.

"Come on. What are you waiting for? Give me all you've got." Rowan hesitated for a moment. All I've got? Alright! He packaged nine-tenths of his Qi Sea into a Germination and shot it at Mikael's abdomen. The spell struck true. Mikael's eyes widened. He turned to the side, braced his arms on his knees, and immediately vomited. The core disciple fell over into a crumpled heap.

"Mikael?" asked Rowan with sharp concern. The man waved him off. He scraped himself back up, coughing. His coughing became deeper, like he was trying to dislodge something stuck in his lungs. Finally, a small red leaf drifted out of his mouth, floating to the ground.

"What the hell kind of qi art is that, Helsing? This feels like the time I bumped into the abbot at– Never mind." The other three stared at Rowan and Mikael with varying levels of concern.

"Is this what you've been killing people with?" The concern increased. Mikael shook his head.

"That is so inefficient. First of all, if this qi disruption art is all you have, it's better to use it as a tactic than as a blow. See what just happened to me there? Cultivators don't just rely on their senses, they expect them to never fail. When's the last time any of you have felt dizzy, or woken up with blurry vision?" he asked, suddenly addressing his other students.

"Not you, Rowan," Mikael said, before Rowan could say something funny. Lee nodded thoughtfully.

"My father used to drink me under the table. Now, I need three cups of wine to feel what he feels with one."

"It's going to get worse," said Mikael.

"Liquor bills become unaffordable after a few layers," he said morosely.

"When you get to the peak of Qi Condensation, you'll be drinking nothing but tea like an old grandmother, because nothing even works anymore."

"Can't you have Spirit Wine?" Damion asked.

"Yes, I'll definitely be spending my life savings on a single fun night, Lord Decadent," Mikael said, scoffing. Wasn't Mikael a Maulkin? But then again, according to his own story, his family had refused to pay his ransom when he'd been kidnapped by bandits.

"Spirit wine is for inheriting sons who don't have to buy spirit stones," Mikael continued.

"But anyway, where was I?" He turned back to Rowan.

"Cultivators, especially the ones you'll be fighting, will be susceptible to anything that messes with their senses. In the mid-stage, everyone's grown comfortable with seeing long distances, hearing faraway whispers, and landing on their feet after falling from great heights. You'll be able to win some fights just by shaking that confidence of theirs." Mikael hummed thoughtfully, pacing.

"A technique like this is probably, at its best, something that is hard to notice immediately. If you go all out, you might kill someone without meaning to. But if it's immediately debilitating, then your opponent might activate a talisman, or divert their qi into something defensive."

"Is there something like that I can learn too?" Lee asked hopefully. Mikael nodded tentatively.

"I can try to find something for you," he said.

"But your winning strategy is to have your bird sit on the opposition until they surrender. If it's not enough, you can help." Lee chortled, then turned to look at his summon. Princess Feathertail and Fang had been running long laps around the edge of the Pavilion. The Princess had doubled, maybe tripled, in size since her summoning, but she was no longer clumsy. She slithered as fast as any of the Righteous Mountain outer disciples could run.

Fang had only grown a little bit taller, but the beaks on her roots scored the paved slate ground as she leisurely skittered ahead of the basilisk. Rowan suspected that either of them would have good odds of winning the early-stage bracket.

"You shall address me as Princess, Chief Assistant's Coach!" Fang took advantage of the distraction to trip Princess Feathertail, a common start to the regularly scheduled showdown between the two.

"Any questions before I move on?" Mikael asked. Rowan spoke up.

"What if my opponent is fairly perceptive? If the qi disruption slips their notice, isn't that a waste of time?" Mikael thought for a moment, then shook his head.

"It'll still be useful. If they think they're aiming at you, but their vision's a bit off, then you won't even have to dodge. If the disruption encumbers their well-practiced techniques in novel ways, they won't be able to adjust. Your opponent might even blow themselves up. And if they manage to land a critical hit on you, the result might not be an immediate loss, even if their cultivation is superior to yours." Rowan nodded. His fight with Daoist Apex had taught him the value of a lingering qi wound.

"Really, this is completely your fault for moving up a bracket. The mid-stage bouts are actually amongst the most dangerous. Lots of accidents happen, and some of them aren't even intentional. The average mid-stage competitor is strong enough to perform a lethal technique, confused enough to give it an honest attempt, and stupid enough to think it worked." Mikael pinned Rowan with a critical glance. Rowan gave a suffering sigh.

"I'm not going to–""I'm not worried you're going to kill someone," Mikael said, cutting him off.

"That's fine. It's expected." The alarmed glances returned - from Lee and Silvester.

"I'm saying make sure that you actually follow through if you do. Do you know what the most lethal moment in a tournament match is?" Rowan shook his head.

"It's when someone does something spectacular, completely defeating their opponent, and turns to the elders, expecting the match to be declared. Last conference, over at Soul Shear Valley, I watched three such deaths in a row. Not on the same day. In a row. Guess which bracket." Rowan nodded.

"You're telling me not to be either of these two people. Don't be the stupid winner, and don't be a sore loser." Mikael smiled widely.

"But if you have to choose," Decatour jutted in, his eyes suddenly fierce.

"Be the sore–""You're up. Your strongest qi-based attack, Decimeter," said Mikael flatly. Decatour stood up proudly, making sure he didn't show any sign of being offended.

"Right. You're the one who practices the Upright Ministry Scripture, which excels at stamina, breath, and discipline. The most expensive rank two scripture in the Inner Sanctum, over a thousand credits," said Mikael. There wasn't a trace of mocking in his voice, but even Lee winced in sympathy. Silvester continued to sketch in the dirt, not listening at all. Mikael turned to Rowan.

"While you recover your qi, why don't you walk Silvester through some basic qi exercises?"